


A Different Dance

by belmione



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Podfic Available, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 03, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24397777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belmione/pseuds/belmione
Summary: Adora grapples with her memories at the heart of Etheria, attending Scorpia’s first ball, and trying to propose to Catra.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Netossa/Spinnerella (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 318





	A Different Dance

Adora doesn’t remember her fervent wish at the heart of Etheria with much clarity for many years. She remembers how it felt, her deepest wants laid bare, how keenly she wanted a life with Catra, how badly she wanted her and her friends happy and whole and together. She remembers how it sounded, her own shallow breathing that grew difficult by the second, the sound of Horde Prime’s voice, cutting and cruel, Catra’s desperate pleading. But the details remain ephemeral, like a dream that fades upon waking, the essence of it there but its substance lost. 

The particulars come back slowly, fading in and out, gaining and losing clarity in turns as the years go by. 

The strangest things result in flashes of memory that seem far-fetched at first but grow more familiar. The first time she notices that Glimmer has grown taller brings a hazy memory of laughter. Once, on a distant planet, Catra holds her hand out to her just so and the feeling of deja vu is so powerful she can’t take her hand at first. When Bow stops shaving the scruff on his chin she remembers an older version of him that she can’t explain. 

Things get clearer as they get older. The first time Catra pulls her hair back the way Adora always does brings back a memory so vivid she can hardly tell the difference between the real Catra in front of her and the one in a memory that’s still hazy but growing stronger. 

By the time the invitations for Scorpia’s first ball arrive, she can recall small aspects of it. She remembers that she was wearing white, but can’t remember the dress exactly. Glimmer and Catra were playing, but over what, she can’t tell. The thing she remembers most is a soft smile from Catra and her outstretched hand, waiting for Adora to follow her.

The little pieces of memory she has are beautiful enough for her to pick a white dress out of all the others, a long and gauzy one that flows like water. But otherwise, the strange and inconsistent memory isn’t at the forefront of her mind as she dresses for the ball with Catra. She’s too busy biting her nails in the lulls in conversation, waiting to get a moment alone in the room to tuck the ring she has for her in the pocket of her dress. A moment without Catra is rare, not that she usually minds. They’re normally happy to be hopelessly attached to one another.

Glimmer was supposed to help distract her for a moment, but they’re almost dressed and they’re supposed to leave soon. Adora can only continue pretending to adjust her hair and dress for so long. Just as she’s about to make an excuse to go find Glimmer herself, her voice drifts in from behind the closed door.

“Catra? Can I get your help for a minute?”

Catra narrows her eyes at the door as Adora tries to hide her relief.

“With what?” Catra asks, suspecting a prank of some sort. They may be older, but Adora doubts Glimmer and Catra will ever outgrow playfully harassing one another.

“Ugh,” Glimmer growls. “Bow’s still getting ready and I...can't reach something.”

Catra cackles, guard lowered at the opportunity to tease Glimmer about her height.

“Aww, sure I’ll come help you because you’re short, Sparkles.”

Adora knows she only has a few seconds as Catra turns her back to cross to the door. She darts as silently as she can to her dresser, fumbling in the top drawer. Catra shrieks outside the door she just closed behind her, bursting back in with Glimmer brandishing a hairbrush, and Adora freezes. 

She can hardly move watching a memory she thought she’d lost unfold in front of her, the fine details finally clear. The light from a golden sunset streaming through the window and the way it plays across the planes of Catra’s face. The mad giggling of Glimmer and Catra as they run in circles around Adora. Catra’s hands on her shoulders as she hides behind her. 

She can hardly answer at first when Catra crosses from behind her and holds her hand out to Adora, one of the only things she can remember with clarity. 

She’s afraid when she reaches for Catra’s hand that it won’t be real, that the vision will flicker and die in front of her like it did before, that these happy years were all an awful purgatory she imagined the entire time. But Catra’s hand is warm and tangible when she reaches for her, fingers lacing together easily as Catra tugs her gently to follow Glimmer and Bow. She can’t believe the hall outside the room is real, that there’s something that follows after.

“Adora? Are you okay?” Catra asks so only she can hear just before they catch up with their friends. “You look freaked out.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry,” she shakes her head and Catra narrows her eyes.

“Are you?”

“Yeah, just nervous.”

Catra snorts.

“Why?”

“Well, the last ball didn’t exactly go very well,” Adora reminds her, hoping her attempt at humor is sufficiently distracting. Catra still looks suspicious but clearly doesn’t want to push Adora. 

“It’s going to be okay,” she squeezes her hand, deciding to reassure her regardless of whether Adora is being honest at the moment.

“Everyone ready?” Glimmer asks, smiling at them as if she hasn’t noticed Adora’s preoccupation. 

“As I’ll ever be,” Catra mutters. She’s grown as used to Glimmer’s teleporting as she can, but she makes no secret of the fact that she hates it. 

“Ready,” Bow nods.

“Ready,” Adora echoes, even as Glimmer pauses a little longer on her before nodding.

“Okay, everyone hold on,” she tells them brightly and they all oblige, the tell-tale weightlessness of her magic taking hold. Adora has never minded it, but she can’t blame Catra for her aversion to it. Teleporting has always felt a little disorienting to her too, dizzy and numb like spinning in place for too long. 

When they land in the arid heat of the Scorpion Kingdom, they all pause to give Catra’s stomach a moment to stop lurching. She braces her hands on her knees, eyes still shut.

“Okay, I think I’m good,” she groans, standing slowly after a minute or two. 

“Sorry,” Glimmer grins, disarming. “We left too late to do anything else.”

Adora wasn’t keeping track of the time for once, too wrapped up in parsing out memory from reality and trying to grab the ring without Catra noticing. Catra shrugs.

“I hate it, but it’s convenient, I’ll give you that, Glitter.” 

Glimmer giggles at the nickname now where it used to frustrate her. 

They approach the remnants of what used to be the Fright Zone, though it’s hardly recognizable anymore. Scorpia has spent the years after the war reclaiming her rightful kingdom. What’s left of the Fright Zone has either been dismantled or is overgrown, reclaimed by magic, rusting metal covered with tangles of brush, strange desert flowers, and birds in hues of red and yellow that blend into the sandstone on the edges of the Crimson Waste.

“Wow, so this is different,” Catra remarks, walking in with an arm looped through Adora’s.

Horror Hall has been rebuilt along with the Scorpion Kingdom. Its old murals still stand, but they’re restored, incorporated into newly carved walls and domed ceilings, hewn out of rock or formed with smooth clay. It’s a stark and powerful structure, beautiful in its strength and blunt edges. There are tall, curved arches around the edges of the hall and the warm, arid air blows in gentle breezes through them. 

“Warmer than last time, too,” Bow remarks, grinning and stretching happily in the warmth. Glimmer shakes her head fondly.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if you hadn’t insisted on going without the cumberbund last time.”

“Full shirts go against everything I believe in, Glimmer,” he answers with mock-seriousness. 

“I know,” she sighs before smiling sweetly at the head of the room. “Scorpia looks beautiful,” she says, somewhere between proud and reverent. 

She sits, chatting amicably with everyone who comes up to present themselves, dressed in deep red the color of wine. Adora smiles, remembering how formal Frosta’s ball was versus the shocked looks on guests’ faces as Scorpia doles out hugs and friendly chatter. Perfuma sits at her right, watching her, indulgent. She’s clearly aware that Scorpia is handling the affair in an unorthodox manner but loves watching her enjoy herself too much to step in. 

They join the line to greet her, filing in behind Glimmer and Bow. Glimmer tips her head to rest on his shoulder and they talk, only intermittently audible to Catra and Adora. She does hear Glimmer tell him, “I’m glad I get to come with you this time,” and he squeezes her middle in reply. 

“I’m glad I get to go with you this time, too,” Adora murmurs to Catra, echoing Glimmer, and she gives her a warm smile in reply.

“Me too. This is more fun, not to mention less work.”

“Yeah, because you’re not trying to kidnap anyone,” Adora elbows her, playful.

“Exactly. Even though it was really fun trying to make you jealous,” she waggles her eyebrows and Adora rolls her eyes.

“You didn’t make me  _ that _ jealous.”

“You’re such a liar,” she tells her before she kisses her gently on the cheek. “You’re blushing, stupid.”

“Okay, maybe I was a little bit jealous,” she relents. “You did look beautiful then.”

“Hmm. So did you,” Catra presses her cheek to Adora’s, nuzzling her sweetly. “But I gotta say, I do love the way you look in white.”

“Hey, could you stop being gross for literally one second? It’s almost your turn,” someone drones behind them. Mermista has slipped in line behind them with Seahawk. 

“Jealous?” Catra sticks her tongue out at her and Adora swats her a little.

“Of your PDA? No,” she huffs, crossing her arms.

“I think you’re just too embarrassed to do the same,” Catra teases and Mermista growls. 

“Guys? I know you love to bond over this stuff, but can we keep it together just until after we say hi to Scorpia?” Adora asks. 

“But where’s the fun in that? Any good ball needs intrigue! Conflict! Advent-” Seahawk starts before Mermista places a hand over his mouth, practiced at stopping his tirades before they get out of hand. 

“I’d really love to get through one ball without a fight,” Bow calls from the front.

“Fine,” Mermista sighs, rolling her eyes. “Be that way.”

Catra and Mermista continue to make faces at one another quietly as they go until Scorpia catches sight of them and lunges for them.

“Come here!”

She envelops Bow and Glimmer in one arm and Catra and Adora in the other, easily lifting all four of them into a bone-crushing hug. 

“Sweetheart, be careful,” Perfuma giggles.

“Oh my gosh, you came! I’m so glad-”

“You really think we’d skip your first ball?” Catra asks as she puts them down, simultaneously fond and out of breath.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Glimmer agrees. “You look amazing, by the way.”

Scorpia flushes.

“T-thanks. Perfuma picked it out. You all look stunning too, gosh,” she babbles on. “I remember our first ball, what a great night.”

They all share a glance and silently agree together not to remind Scorpia that two of their number were captured by her and Catra, not to mention the mess of unrequited feelings none of them managed to handle with an ounce of decorum. 

“And Adora, can I just say? You look a vision in white,” she tells her before Perfuma grabs her claw, and she startles, clamping her mouth shut. 

“Well, please enjoy! We’ll be around to mingle after we say hello to everyone,” Perfuma comes to her rescue and they file away. 

“That was weird,” Adora mutters, sincerely hoping Catra doesn’t catch on after Scorpia’s comment.

“Don’t overthink it,” Catra rolls her eyes as she takes her hand. “Come on, they have your favorite at the buffet. If I know Scorpia, she put it there just for you.”

Catra doesn’t appear to have suspected anything and Adora doesn’t want to give her any more reason to be suspicious, so she follows Catra without further protest. They join Glimmer and Bow who chat with Frosta. She eagerly hugs Glimmer, nearly rivaling her height now at 22. 

“You look so grown up,” Glimmer squeezes her tightly. “You have to stop growing! You’re not allowed to get taller than me!”

“It’s gonna happen,” Frosta grins mischievously and Adora is inclined to agree.

“Adora! Catra!” she smiles and moves to hug them both as well. “You two aren’t planning on ruining this ball, are you?” she asks, playing at a dark scowl.

“Nope, just yours,” Catra grins. 

“Good. It’s hot in here, though,” she fans herself, too used to the chill in the Kingdom of Snows. “I don’t know how Scorpia lives here.”

“I do,” Bow grins. “It’s so nice. Not that your ball wasn’t it’s just-”

“You insist on crop tops,” she finishes, grinning.

“Yeah,” he shrugs, sheepish. Glimmer pokes him playfully just before the lights dim and Scorpia announces the first dance. Catra holds her hand out, just the way she did ten years ago. But this time, there’s a gentleness in her eyes, an openness in her expression. The touch of her hands are warm and light instead of clenched and tense. They relax into one another’s arms, practiced now in a way they weren’t before. 

“I know you were trying to distract me last time,” Adora smiles. “But I’ve always wondered if you also didn’t just want to dance with me anyway?”

“Obviously,” Catra laughs. “I told Scorpia it was because I’d be more distracting to you but getting to rope you into a dance was definitely a bonus I wasn’t complaining about.”

“Well, Scorpia was right anyway,” Adora giggles. Catra returns her laughter before sobering.

“I’m sorry about last time. I know I’ve said it before but being here-” Catra trails off and touches her forehead to Adora’s gently. Adora cups her cheek.

“Thank you. Even though I forgave you a long time ago,” she tells her, kissing her before the dance takes them to different partners for a moment. Glimmer spins into Adora’s arms, grinning.

“Are you ready?” she whispers.

“Yes and absolutely not,” Adora sighs. “I wonder if she can tell my hands are sweating? Do you think she knows?”

Glimmer rolls her eyes.

“No, but even if she did, who cares? She loves you, she won’t mind a little hint.”

“I just want it to be perfect,” Adora groans.

“It’s already perfect,” Glimmer reassures her. “You know she’s going to say yes, you’re just overthinking it,” she continues before whirling away as Perfuma floats to her.

“I’m so sorry, I hope we didn’t give anything away-” Perfuma mutters, worried.

“I don’t think you did, it’s okay. I’m more worried about giving it away myself. Do I look nervous?” she asks as she lifts her. 

“Um, no? Or no more than usual. You always look a little nervous,” Perfuma answers, hesitant. Adora groans as she sets her down.

“Which is actually a good thing right now! If you’re always nervous, being nervous won’t look out of place, right?”

“I hope so,” Adora bites her lip.

“You’ll be fine,” Perfuma reassures her before Glimmer twirls back. 

“Breathe, Adora,” Glimmer chastises her lightly. “You look like you’re going to pass out. It’s going to be fine.”

“I’m trying!” Adora answers before Catra comes back to her, turning with her back to her for a moment before lowering her smoothly into a dip just as she did a decade ago. Only this time she also smiles and kisses her sweetly as she goes in a way that makes Adora’s worries seem small and far away again. 

“You okay?” Catra asks with concern etched on her features. Even if Adora feels a little better, Catra has noticed that something is off. She always does. 

“A little overwhelmed,” Adora answers honestly.

“You want to get some air?” she asks, jabbing a thumb at the terrace behind them. 

“Yeah,” she nods, grateful. It’ll give her a moment away from everyone to get this over with. Her heart pounds in her ears as she follows Catra outside to the breezy terrace, lit by the light filtering in from the hall and torches lining the edges. A cobalt sky dotted with stars stretches wide above them. 

“What’s up with you tonight?” Catra asks, voice soft with worry. Adora almost tells her it’s nothing. But standing here with her, looking at her face lit by the soft and flickering light from the hall, she realizes there is something. Something beyond even the expected nervousness of the ring sitting in her pocket. 

“I saw this,” she murmurs, hesitant. Catra quirks an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“At the heart,” she answers, voice barely audible. Catra’s grip on her hand tightens. “When I was almost...before you told me you loved me.” 

Catra’s ears flatten. She knows Adora means  _ when I was almost dead _ , though neither of them can say it. She swallows hard at the memory of how close they were to losing each other. 

“You saw this?” she gestures at the ballroom behind them, the music drifting in and out.

“Not this exactly. Before, when we were in our room. When you came in with Glimmer and Bow. I saw that at the heart.”

“So seeing the future is one of your weird She-Ra things too? How am I just hearing about this?” Catra smiles, trying to lighten the mood, but the worry in her expression is stronger. 

“It’s not, I can’t see the future,” she shakes her head. “It was just that once.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Catra asks, looping her arms around Adora’s waist. Adora leans into it, burying her face in the crook of her neck.

“I don’t know,” she whispers against her. “I think I was just afraid.”

Catra starts and pulls back to face her.

“Of what?”

“That it wouldn’t happen, I guess,” she murmurs. “P-Prime saw it too. He told me it wouldn’t happen and I know he’s been gone this whole time but-”

Catra just pulls her close, tucking herself under her chin and Adora presses her lips to her hair, breathing in. The soft warmth and smell of her is a welcome balm against memories that still plague them both, though not as often as they used to.

“So? Does it look like you thought?” Catra asks after a moment moving to look at her.

“Yes,” she sighs. “Almost exactly.”

“Is that why you were being weird earlier before we left?”

She nods, swallowing the ache in her throat. “I saw you come in with Glimmer and it was exactly like I saw. I always thought that that was just in my head. I never thought it’d be exactly like it. Even if I kind of hoped it would be,” she shrugs, sheepish. “I might’ve picked this dress for that reason.”

“You’re about to cry, aren’t you?” Catra teases warmly. 

“I still can’t believe we made it here sometimes,” she answers, sniffling.

“Me neither,” Catra agrees, touching her forehead to Adora’s. “But I’m glad we did.”

“Thank you. You already know this, but I wouldn’t be here without you and-”

“You’re such a sap,” Catra smiles, soft, as she reaches up to catch a stray tear that escapes, rolling down Adora’s cheek.

“You are too,” she nudges her, playful, even as she’s still just on the edge of tears.

“Yeah,” Catra shrugs. “And I’m about to be worse. It’s a really good thing you can’t actually see the future because that would’ve made this awkward.”

Catra pulls a small box out of her pocket and opens it to reveal a ring. Adora freezes, her tears finally getting the better of her, before she reaches into the pocket of her dress and feels nothing. She scrambles to reach into the other pocket and comes up empty again before she remembers an identical box in her top dresser drawer and claps a hand to her forehead.

“No!”

“No?” Catra falters, shocked, ears swiveling with stress. The little box in her palm is open now. She’s frozen halfway to kneeling.

“I mean, not no! Yes!”

“Okay, I’m a little confused-” Catra answers. “Do you wanna marry me or not?”

“Yes, of course, I do! I just had one for you I was going to bring and then when I saw you all earlier exactly like I remembered I must’ve forgotten it,” she finishes, flushing and dabbing at her cheeks. “I was going to propose to you tonight too. I could’ve  _ sworn _ I put it in my pocket already-”

Catra gives a sigh of relief and shoves her playfully.

“Don’t scare me like that! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry,” she giggles, embarrassed, voice still nasal with tears. “I ruined your proposal, didn’t I?”

“Only a little,” she chuckles before she looks up at her, self-conscious. “You were really going to do it, too?” she asks, expression gentle and hesitant in a way it only is when Adora is with her.

“Yes. Sorry, I forgot your ring and then accidentally said no at first.”

“You’re an idiot, but lucky for you I love you,” Catra answers, nuzzling her cheek, a low and gentle purr rumbling in her chest.

“I love you too,” she leans in to kiss her, warm and soft. 

“You can ask me again if you want since I ruined the first one,” she murmurs against her lips after a moment. Catra smiles against her mouth.

“Marry me?” she asks.

“Absolutely,” Adora answers before she’s knocked forward by two people half jumping on her at her back. 

“Did you do it? Did you do it?” Glimmer asks, hopping in place and shaking Adora’s arm in excitement.

“What did she say?” Bow follows, urgent as if he’s about to explode.

“Wait, they knew about this and I didn’t?” Catra asks, tail thrashing as she struggles with the onslaught of attention.

“Proposals are supposed to be a surprise, Catra! You couldn’t know about it,” Glimmer beams. “So? How’d it go?”

“I...didn’t do it,” Adora scratches the back of her neck, embarrassed.

“Oh no. Did we just ruin it?” Bow claps a hand to his mouth in terror. “I told you we should wait a minute,” he turns to Glimmer, now in a full panic.

“No, Adora did a good enough job of that herself,” Catra prods at her, grinning. “Luckily for her, I came through for her,” Catra holds up the box that’s still in her hand.

“She beat you to it?!” Glimmer squeals, gleeful, bouncing in place.

“Yeah, she did. Also, I might’ve forgotten the ring I had at home-”

“You didn’t,” Bow groans.

“She did,” Catra nods. “She also accidentally said no first.”

“Adora, you know I love you, but you’re an idiot,” Glimmer tells her and she can’t stop giggling after, smiling so hard her cheeks are going red. 

“I said the same thing,” Catra crosses her arms, smug before Scorpia comes barrelling in and lifts Catra’s left hand in an open claw.

“Let me see it! Let me...oh no. I’m too early aren’t I? I just assumed because Bow and Glimmer-”

“Did  _ everyone _ know about this?” Catra’s fur stands on end as she whirls on Adora.

“I tried to keep it a secret but-” Adora stutters.

“Secrets aren’t Adora’s strong suit,” Perfuma explains, placid from where she holds Scorpia’s other claw in both hands. 

“Remembering the ring isn’t either, but I covered for her,” Catra teases again, finally taking Adora’s hand and slipping the ring on her finger. Scorpia holds her claws over her mouth, shocked.

“Oh my god. You...you were both going to...you two are so perfect for each other I-” she starts to tear up and Perfuma rubs her back. “I’m sorry I’m so emotional, wow,” she continues, waving her claws in front of her face as if trying to will the tears back in.

“Don’t cry on your first ball, sweetheart,” she tells her.

“It’s just so romantic-” Scorpia devolves into a blubbering mess as Perfuma comforts her.

“I was hoping we didn’t give anything away earlier, but thankfully it looks like we didn’t,” Perfuma continues, patting Scorpia. 

“I was worried for a minute that you were on to me,” Catra acknowledges. “But turns out Adora just sucks at keeping secrets. It was even great for me that she forgot the ring because it means I won.” Catra grins, clearly goading Adora. Adora doesn’t want to take the bait but there’s something in her that’s incapable of stopping.

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did.”

“It’s not a competition, Catra,” she crosses her arms, perturbed.

“ _ Everything _ is a competition,” she needles.

“Exactly,” Netossa calls across the terrace, raising her glass from where she and Spinnerella stand at a table just at the edge of the hall. “And thanks to you I just won, too! I told you she’d beat Adora to it,” she turns to Spinnerella who makes a show of looking unaffected.

“See? Everyone knows I’m right and that I just won.”

“You did not!”

“I did and that’s why you’re mad,” Catra cackles as Adora lunges at her. They tussle playfully with each other, prodding, shoving, chasing one another across the terrace. Catra trips and Adora snickers as she shrieks that this is why she never wears shoes.

“Okay, we’re going to leave you two to  _ that _ ,” Glimmer gestures at them both, turning back to the hall. 

“Please don’t come inside until you’re ready to, you know, not wreck stuff,” Bow pleads. “I need  _ one  _ peaceful ball. Just one.”

“Aw, they’re just being kids in love,” Scorpia chuckles, waving a claw dismissively. “It’s harmless.”

“They’re almost thirty,” Glimmer reminds her, having abandoned her giggles for mild exasperation. “And one of them is She-Ra. Not exactly harmless.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Perfuma adds as they all filter back inside, though she doesn’t sound wholly convinced.

Their words fall on deaf ears. Catra and Adora are too wrapped up in one another, playful giggling eventually silenced by soft kisses. 

“Hmm,” Adora hums, content, as they sway together lazily, dancing slowly to their own rhythm. 

“Yeah,” Catra agrees, not even attempting to quell the purr in her chest. 

“Makes you wonder,” Adora murmurs, forehead still gently resting on Catra’s, their noses still touching.

“About what?”

“What the next ball will look like. Where we’ll be then.”

“I don’t know,” Catra answers. “I do know one thing.”

“What?” Adora asks, grinning. She thinks she knows the answer.

“I know you’ll be my wife by then.”

Adora kisses her again, the knowledge too sweet not to.

“So when do you want to do this thing?” she asks. Catra shrugs.

“Whenever. I’d do it tomorrow, I don’t care.”

Adora’s eyes fly open.

“Seriously?”

“Eloping always seemed fun,” Catra grins.

“Our friends would kill us,” Adora laughs, trying not to seem like the idea intrigues her too.

“Let them.”

“We need a witness.”

“Does Melog count?”

“I...I don’t know, actually,” Adora pauses.

“I bet Swift Wind definitely does,” Catra wheedles. 

“You’d really bring Swift Wind? I thought he was annoying,” she asks, narrowing her eyes.   


“He’s also transportation. It's just a bonus that he’s sentient.”

“Yeah, that sounds more like it.”

“Doesn’t it sound nice though? Running away for a few days? Wherever we want?” Catra asks.

“Okay, yeah, that does sound kind of perfect.”

“I knew you’d come around,” Catra grins. 

“I was already with you,” Adora admits. “The only reason I’m not leaving right now is that Scorpia would be crushed.”

“So what’s the plan? Where should we go?” Catra asks as they turn to look out at the desert beyond the terrace. The treeline of the Whispering Woods is visible just at the horizon.   
  
Adora looks at the stars, pensive, arm looped around Catra’s waist.

“You know, it’s been a while since we’ve left Etheria,” she comments. “And Swift Wind has been bugging me to let him come with me up there. Maybe we’ll stop on one of those planets we went to right after the war. Get married there.”

“That’s barely a plan at all,” Catra laughs. “I like it.”

“Then it’s a date.”

“It’s a little more than a date, it’s a  _ wedding,”  _ Catra nudges her.

“You knew what I meant,” Adora squeezes her middle. Catra tips her head to rest her head on Adora’s shoulder. 

They go quiet for a moment. Adora can’t help but think about how the lines between past and present seem beautifully thin for a moment and she feels like she can see everything at once, all the ways they’ve known this place and each other. 

The Fright Zone as it was when they were young, its precariously stacked towers a mystery to explore, a vast maze where they chased one another, laughing and wondering what lay beyond the metallic hum there. Catra when she was small, all wild fur and round eyes, simultaneously playful and terrified. The Fright Zone Adora left behind, a home that betrayed her, and the Catra she left behind, a lanky teenager, bitterly angry and heartbroken and lost. 

The abandoned rubble of the place after the war, suddenly grown over with magic they’d never seen before and a Catra still wounded but healing, heart open even when it terrified her, a Catra that told her she loved her for the first time even as she thought she’d be rebuffed.

Now, a kingdom reclaimed, a place of joy and music and laughter instead of war. A Catra to whom expressions of love come easily, one who smiles and laughs often, one who is unafraid as she asks Adora to marry her. 

“Should we go back in?” Catra asks after a little while, almost inaudible as if she’s afraid to disturb the moment.

“They can handle it without us for a few more minutes,” Adora sighs and Catra happily cuddles to her side. They’re content to bask in the enormity of standing together in the remnants of their old home made anew, planning to run away together into the infinity of stars above them.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[PODFIC] A Different Dance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398185) by [belmione](https://archiveofourown.org/users/belmione/pseuds/belmione)




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